Joining Matt in the "Bottom Three" sing-off battle to stay on the show was athlete-turned-rocker Chris Pierson and Maryland native Phil Ritchie. While Matt wasn't stellar, I was shocked to see him in the bottom tier and not Magni. Consider Week One
a warning and a break to the Icelandic rocker.

Like it or not, it was up to Matt to convince Lee, Clarke and Newsted that they should keep him around. Newsted asked Hoffer, following his first performance, Coldplay's "Yellow," that he wanted to hear something harder to bring out his voice.

The rendition itself was not a bad one, but it became perfectly clear that along while vocal ability and stage performance are both important to Supernova, song selection is a key early on. Newsted said that Hoffer's ability -- or inability -- to pick songs that reflect the idea of the band was too much to overlook.

Pierson and Richie, on the other hand, understood this early and saved themselves with better song selection.

Pierson, still with a less than stellar voice, turned to "one of his favorite songs" ever, belted out The Doors' "L.A. Woman." The band was impressed with his selection and performance but was still concerned about his vocal ability.

Conversely, Richie thrilled with an excellent rendition of Switchfoot's "Stars" to the delight of host Dave Navarro and Tommy Lee. All thought he did a much better job vocally, but Newsted was worried about his stage presence on stage. However, of the three, he definitely turned out the best performance, and it was enough to get him through to the next week.

The encore of the night went to the one-named wonder Dilana, who wowed us again with Nirvana's "Lithium." You can read about it and the full summary of the episode at http://rockstar.msn.com/.

So, in summary, Richie is back in our good graces, Pierson is walking on thin ice and Hoffer is history.